Amir Ali Alibhai, Executive Director, Alliance for Arts and Culture

Street youth carving a canoe of old-growth cedar in the heart of Yaletown; an opera singer taking centre stage before a Canucks game. These are a couple of examples that Amir Ali Alibhai points to of how art, community and culture can intersect to form the beating heart of an urban society.

The new executive director of the Alliance for Arts and Culture, representing more than 350 local artists and arts organizations, understands better than anyone that without culture, a city is merely an empty concrete shell. His experience ranges from overseeing community engagement to his new role advocating on behalf of professional artists.